Atalanta blitzes Venezia in eight minutes, wins 3-1 despite finishing with ten men

Eight minutes. That's all it took Atalanta to put the game away against Venezia, with two lightning-fast goals that turned the New Balance Arena into an early party. The final score: 3-1, with a late scare thrown in that didn't change the result but did leave the home side down a man.

The start was devastating. In the 3rd minute, Franck Kessie finished with his right foot from inside the box after a through ball from Nikola Krstovic made it 1-0. Just two minutes later, in the 5th, Krstovic himself rose to head home from the center of the box after an Eljif Elmas corner delivery, making it 2-0. Venezia, who had opened the game testing the waters with a long-range effort from Toma Basic, suddenly found themselves down on the scoreboard without any chance to respond.

Atalanta kept pushing and before the half-hour mark came the third goal: Krstovic struck again, this time with his right foot from the center of the box, completing a brace in just 26 minutes to make it 3-0 in the 29th minute. Venezia, however, didn't fully collapse. Seven minutes later, in the 36th, Antoine Hainaut pulled one back with a close-range header off a cross from Richie Sagrado, and the score stood at 3-1 heading into the break.

The second half was a different match altogether. Venezia took control of the ball, pressed with persistence (John Yeboah rattled the crossbar in the 55th minute) and created clear chances through Akor Adams and Kike Pérez, but they lacked the finishing touch, and Marco Carnesecchi was solid between the posts. Atalanta managed their lead and turned to rotation, bringing on Lazar Samardzic, Nicola Zalewski and Gianluca Gaetano, among other substitutions.

The closing stretch produced a strange episode involving Eljif Elmas: in the 87th minute, VAR overturned a red card shown to him, but just a minute later, in the 88th, the midfielder was sent off again, this time for good. Atalanta finished with ten men, though the result never wavered.

What the numbers say

The stats confirm this was a game of two faces: Atalanta struck early and with precision, while Venezia dominated possession without being able to turn it into goals.

According to our estimate based on the match's shot data, Atalanta generated 2.875 expected goals compared to Venezia's 2.8, a figure that reflects just how close the match ended up being in terms of chance volume, even though the early finishing made the real difference on the scoreboard.

Beforehand, our projection gave Atalanta a 64% chance of winning, with a 22% chance of a draw and 14% for Venezia, and the model placed expected goals at 2.1 for the home side and 0.89 for the visitors. The final result ended up consistent with that favoritism, though Hainaut's goal and the offensive level Venezia showed in the second half made for a more contested match than those pre-game figures suggested.

What it means in the standings

In the Serie A table, Atalanta came into this match with 9 points from 6 games played, while Venezia remained without a single point, sitting at 0 after 6 matches played. The gap between the two sides before this result stood at 9 points, a reflection of the two very different campaigns both clubs have had so far this season.